The present invention relates in general to superconducting ceramic materials, and more specifically, to such materials in the nature of ceramics formed into a woven interconnected structure embedded in a polymer to produce a flexible superconducting ceramic polymer composite.
Superconducting materials evidence a total disappearance of their electrical resistance when they are cooled below a critical temperature T.sub.C. For all practical purposes, superconducting material under these circumstances is considered to have a resistance of zero. A vast number of elements, alloys and compounds have so far been discovered to be superconducting, for example, In, Sn, V, Mo, Nb-Zr alloys and Nb.sub.3 Sn. Transition temperatures of these superconducting materials range from a few thousandths of a degree Kelvin, e.g., for certain Nb-Mo alloys, down to about 18 K for Nb.sub.3 Sn.
Many applications exist which involve the conduction of electricity, often through inconvenient and awkward paths. Previously, these paths could easily be achieved by using copper wires which are flexible and ductile. However, the desired use of superconductors has been limited to the recently discovered high T.sub.c superconductors, and like other ceramics, are brittle and hard to prepare in the form of wires, flexible ribbons and the like. Zero resistance of these superconducting ceramics are destroyed once fracture has occurred, which eliminates the possibility for bending these materials into the desired structures to provide the requisite electrical paths. Although flexible piezoelectric ceramic polymer composites are generally known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,099, there has yet to be any attempt to produce a flexible superconducting ceramic polymer composite. In addition, it has been established that these superconducting ceramics readily react with the ambient atmosphere at typical temperatures, such reactions may be less severe as the purity and density of the materials are improved. Accordingly, the present invention addresses overcoming these problems resulting from the fact that high temperature superconducting ceramics are brittle and incapable of flexure without fracture.